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To Pickle Mushrooms

A method for pickling fresh button mushrooms in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Pickle Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Combine vinegar, whole white pepper, ginger, mace, peeled shallots, and garlic in a pot; boil for 10 minutes and let cool.

Prepare and pack

  1. Peel, wash, and strain fresh button mushrooms.

  2. In a saucepan, add mushrooms, lemon juice, and coarse sea salt; cover and heat until the mushrooms release their liquid.

  3. Transfer the mixture to jars and cover with the pickling liquid.

  4. Seal jars with bladder and white leather to prevent discoloration.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Garlic + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Double distilled white wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the mushrooms.
Fresh button mushrooms
The main ingredient, which softens and takes on the pickling flavours.
Juice of 1 lemon
Adds extra acidity and brightness to the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Seal jars with bladder and white leather to prevent discoloration.. Air exposure lets mushrooms oxidise and darken. A airtight cover limits contact with oxygen, keeping the mushrooms pale and the pickle stable.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, ginger, mace, shallot, garlic, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, ginger, mace, shallot, garlic, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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